On the recommendation of Marco Arment, I decided to invest in Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones. When I purchased them on Amazon, they cost $225. Prior to this week, I've never spent more than $30 on a pair of headphones. So why the extravagance?

More and more, I find myself spending a lot of my time listening to music that I buy online. But more importantly, I find myself wondering what I'm missing. A lot of work goes into producing any album, and by playing them back on cheap-o earbuds or crappy speakers, we're cheating ourselves out of the sonic fullness that we're paying good money for. So I made the decision to splurge on one good set of headphones, rather than opting for an endless supply of generics.

After one day of use, I can safely say that the Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones will change the way I listen to music. Not only are they super comfortable, they make my music sound amazing and bring out nuances that I just don't hear through my speakers, and certainly not my earbuds. I was particularly impressed by how they render classical music, all of which sounds gorgeous. The day I got these, I spent more time listening to music than I had in the previous few weeks combined. My only regret is that some of my music from years ago was encoded at a lower MP3 bitrate than was optimal; time to go back into my old CD collection and do some ripping!

They are not meant to be used in a work-place as they are somewhat "open," meaning they are designed for sound to leak out the sides. Anecdotally, I can say that the sound leakage is negligible, but I still wouldn't use them in public. Instead, used strictly for private listening, these headphones will reveal things about your music you never thought possible.

This blog chronicles my journey into the world of photography, videography, and music. It also serves as my repository for random thoughts about film, technology, television, culture, journalism, and new media.

You can always reach me at davechen(AT)davechen(DOT)net.

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